Someone attempted to hang a hammock from a lifeguard stand at Virginia Beach last Saturday. Unfortunately it caused the stand to collapse and killed a homeless woman who was sleeping on top of the stand. The woman who died probably didn't even know it was happening.
News report:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/na...279208909.html
It seems like we hear about something like this happening all the time and I cringe every time. The collapsed pillar at Lewis & Clark College last year and the two young girls in Ohio who pulled a brick pillar over onto themselves came immediately to my mind.
Please think twice about hanging your hammocks from structures that are designed only to hold things up like picnic pavilions, street lights, statues, and chimneys. Most things like that aren't designed to support the lateral forces a hammock can exert. Also, don't hang over anything you aren't willing to fall on or hang under anything you aren't willing to have fall on you. Kids will be kids, but they don't understand the concept of how much additional lateral force occurs when bouncing/playing in a hammock.
I know that I'm preaching to the choir with most of this community, but we have a collective voice. We should all be walking, talking public service announcements for our friends, family, coworkers, strangers at the park, etc. You might save a life some day and not even know it because you spread the word about hammock safety and it made its way into someone else's ears. Six degrees of separation and all that ...
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